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The city of Independence is in court over unresolved disputes, many of them cost related, stemming from a 2006 explosion at the city’s main power plant.
The city has sued a company called TurboCare Inc., seeking $33 million plus punitive damages.
Since the explosion in 2006, the city, TurboCare and other parties have been discussing who’s at fault and other issues.
“There have been those conversations. I can’t say it’s been productive,” Steve Mauer, the attorney representing the city in the case, said Wednesday.
As Mauer describes it, the issues started in 2005 when a gas turbine at the Blue Valley Power Plant failed. (The plant mostly burns coal, but Independence Power and Light burns gas too during times of peak demand.)
TurboCare won the contract to fix the turbine with a bid of less than $1 million but then found more extensive damage than previously believed, and the bill came to more than $5 million, Mauer said.
The turbine was reinstalled in 2006, and when testing started, it exploded. That injured a worker, who is OK today.
“That led to a long series of discussions and conversations about what the heck happened and what are we going to do,” Mauer said.
The city had an outside company look into the situation, turning up the fact that the turbine’s heat shield was missing.
“They never put it back in,” Mauer said.
TurboCare blames the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, and that union also has been drawn into the lawsuit.
It’s been determined that the turbine cannot be repaired, so the city recently bought a share of a Pleasant Hill natural gas power plant – the Dogwood Energy Facility – to make up the 50 megawatts of electricity lost through the faulty turbine.
The purchase cost the city $30 million, and the city says it’s also got $3 million costs from the damaged turbine itself.
That’s the $33 million the city is suing for, plus punitive damages. TurboCare got the case moved to federal court two weeks ago, but the city will press to get it back in Jackson County Circuit Court.
The city of Independence is in court over unresolved disputes, many of them cost related, stemming from a 2006 explosion at the city’s main power plant.
The city has sued a company called TurboCare Inc., seeking $33 million plus punitive damages.
Since the explosion in 2006, the city, TurboCare and other parties have been discussing who’s at fault and other issues.
“There have been those conversations. I can’t say it’s been productive,” Steve Mauer, the attorney representing the city in the case, said Wednesday.
As Mauer describes it, the issues started in 2005 when a gas turbine at the Blue Valley Power Plant failed. (The plant mostly burns coal, but Independence Power and Light burns gas too during times of peak demand.)
TurboCare won the contract to fix the turbine with a bid of less than $1 million but then found more extensive damage than previously believed, and the bill came to more than $5 million, Mauer said.
The turbine was reinstalled in 2006, and when testing started, it exploded. That injured a worker, who is OK today.
“That led to a long series of discussions and conversations about what the heck happened and what are we going to do,” Mauer said.
The city had an outside company look into the situation, turning up the fact that the turbine’s heat shield was missing.
“They never put it back in,” Mauer said.
TurboCare blames the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, and that union also has been drawn into the lawsuit.
It’s been determined that the turbine cannot be repaired, so the city recently bought a share of a Pleasant Hill natural gas power plant – the Dogwood Energy Facility – to make up the 50 megawatts of electricity lost through the faulty turbine.
The purchase cost the city $30 million, and the city says it’s also got $3 million costs from the damaged turbine itself.
That’s the $33 million the city is suing for, plus punitive damages. TurboCare got the case moved to federal court two weeks ago, but the city will press to get it back in Jackson County Circuit Court.
